Juliana Monteiro, Elite model
The past few decades have brought about many changes in regards to the Afro-Brazilian community. In large part due to the efforts of the Movimento Negro, there are now more black Brazilians in Brazil’s finest universities, more black Brazilians have moved into the middle class, there is a black university, a major black awards show and a magazine devoted to the Afro-Brazilian population.
Juliana Monteiro, a model represented by Elite Modeling agency can attest to this. “This change has really happened. We have about 15 black models in our casting. This is not a quota. There was an increase in the number of clients soliciting these models and mannequins and the market still has a lot to grow,” she says. Although it has been well documented that Brazil’s big fashion events, Fashion Rio and the São Paulo Fashion Week continue to basically ignore the beauty of Afro-Brazilian models, the efforts of Helder Dias, president of HDA Models, an agency dedicated to the exposure of black models and Raça Brasil magazine have had a tremendous impact on the self-esteem and visibility of the black Brazilian population. And as the old saying goes, this is only the beginning.
Source: Black Women of Brazil
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